The flies and lives of Ulf Hagtröm

The last post

2011-08-09T14:12:00.001+02:00

So here we are now after almost three years with this blog and it ends here and now. As I wrote a couple of days ago I had decided to do a fresh start with a new blog project and I have decided over the past few days that I wasn't gonna import the old posts from this blog instead you will find me probably re-posting some of the articles and step-by-step from here to there updated and refreshed.

So from now on please redirect any links, blogrolls, followings and comments to:

http://thewayofthefly.wordpress.com/

Words to feelings

2011-08-07T23:25:00.000+02:00

From time to time you come across someone who managed to put words on feelings that you might have, that you yourself would never have been able to put down like he/she does. Over the past weeks I've started following Olw Jones blog, tonights post will tell you why. Brilliant Owl, just brilliant.

http://www.owljones.com/2011/08/07/death-of-an-angler/

A new start

2011-08-07T09:45:00.000+02:00

I've decided to start a new blog project, just not sure about the exact format yet. When I started this blog some almost three years ago I had no real idea what I wanted to do with it. I was seriously fed up with all the forums I visited and the weird fights that everyone seemed to have with everyone, I just wanted to share fly tying and have fun. So I created the blog to have a place where I could post stuff and he or she who wanted to come and look at it should do so only if they wanted to.

Then came the Facebook explosion and it seemed I posted more there than on the blog and I have felt over the past months or so that I have not really found a good format for the blog in comparison to the social network postings. So I've decided to set up a new blog format which will be more in the form av articles and longer writings, still focus on fly tying and fly fishing but with more product reviews and regular guests posting.

It's kind of like we meant the elmerfishing.com site to be several years ago, but it has never taken off like that. Seriously, those guys are the best friends a guy like me can have and I am gonna fish with them for life but they don't share my interest with the internet and sharing so it has always ended up with me being the only one updating there which in the end has meant that it has slowly degenerated. Which is too bad because my friends there have so many great things to share and talk about if they only had/took the time to write something.

Oh well, still need to decide if I am going to keep all the old posts or if I should start from scratch...

Words

2011-08-06T19:27:00.001+02:00

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the wingèd life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.
- William Blake

Product review - The ferrino Lightent 2

2011-08-05T17:23:00.000+02:00

Okay so not exactly a fly fishing product but if you are a hardcore fly fisherman you will probably do you fair share of hiking and camping over a season. Since I live in an area where there are no trout streams for many, many miles I do most of my trout fishing on longer camping trips. I am sure there are advantages with staying at lodges but it just doesn't beat camping in the wilderness far from civilization as far as I am concerned.

So as soon as you start embarking on camping trips like these you start need other non fly fishing equipment, and good such equipment too. I've been on one week trips where we've had rain for six out of seven days, a good tent is absolutely crucial on trips like that. As soon as you can't keep clothes and gears dry you start to get into real trouble. When it comes to tents in general I will not go into any long text about them, I think that one day I might have my good friend Björn Arkenfall guest blogg here about tents because he knows all that is worth knowing about it and then more.

Ferrino is an Italian company that has been producing gear for hiking and mountaineering for about 140 years. In Sweden there is only one reseller (as far as I know) that sells the Ferrino tents. The Lightent series consist of two tents; the one and two man version. I've now tried the two man version but they are very similar apart from the obvious difference that the one man tent will only have room for one person (duh).

The first thing that amazes you is the size of the tent folded and rolled up into its package. With less than 1 m³ in volume it gives real relieve to packing it in your big hiking bag as opposed to many other tents that you might even have to carry strapped outside on your backpack. It is packed in a bag that has possibilities to compress with straps but I found that the straps was a little to slippery so that the compression often gave after. There are no separate packing bags for the pegs or the poles either which could be seen as a flaw. The other thing is the weight of it, at under 1,8 kilos it is again a true joy to carry with you but it is somewhat on the expense of quality. The pegs are in my opinion too soft, I managed to bend several of them over the course of a week both from hitting rocks when setting them and also from stretching the tent too much. I recommend that you buy new harder pegs, it will affect the overall weight very little.

The tent itself is a tunnel tent where the inner tent, which is mainly a mosquito net with the floor made of polyester, waterproof to 3000 mm. It is assembled first separately before the outer tent is threaded on top of it. The obvious setback with this is the fact that if you are forced to set up the tent in bad weather is is inevitably so that the inner tent will get wet. A real set back for me who have both been forced to raise and take down tents in pouring rain in the past. The inner tent is formed by only two Alu 7001 T6 aluminium poles at different length to create a sloping tent where the height at the head end is 110 cm, just high enough for me to be able to sit up (and tie flies) in there. It is held in place by 8 pegs, and the corners of the tent are especially enforced to withstand hard winds. I would say that the size of the inner tent are good enough for two people to be able to sleep there but just barely.

The inner tent

The outer tent is rip stop polyester also waterproof to 3000 mm and it is mainly fastened in the same pegs as the inner tent, apart from two extra pegs that hold out the section where the door is and what is supposed to be the vestibule. And now we come to the biggest set back (along with the fact that you need to set up the inner tent on its own) the fact that the vestibule of the tent is way to small for a 2 man tent. If you are to use a tent for a weeks fishing you need good place to store your equipment, clothes, food etc. and it is not even close to enough room in this vestibule for a two man tent. Now, if you use it like I have as a one man tent you have plenty of room inside of the tent itself to store equipment which could be good enough for most of us. Another disadvantage with such a small vestibule is that you can't really fix up food in it from the risk of the outer tent catching fire like you can with any other tunnel tent with normal sized vestibule.

Pros and cons

+ Low price
+ Very low weight and volume
+ Good ventilation
+ Easy to asemble

- Inner tent needs to be set up on its own
- Very small vestibule which means you need to store luggage in the main tent, which makes it more of a one man tent.

The verdict
It might sound like there are more disadvantages then advantages with this tent, but one BIG thing about it is the price. It is about three times as cheap as any of the "better" lightweight tents from the big vendors like Hilleberg, Bergan etc. and with that in mind you can live with disadvantages of a small vestibule. The light weight and the price make it well worth the buy in my opinion, as long as you are aware of the fact that the vestibule is little and that the 2-man tent suits one man better because of this. The lower price means that you can spend more money on fishing gear instead!

I give the Ferrino lightent 2 three Blasphemy hoppers out of five, a good solid tent that has its limitations but has really good price/performance ration!

Planet earth

2011-08-03T20:08:00.000+02:00

If you haven't seen it I HIGHLY recommend you to get your hands on the BBC produced epic documentary "Planet earth". The most expensive documentary series ever produced shows our planets treasures but also how incredibly fragile it is and how important it is for us to take care of it in the future.

71 camera operators filmed in 204 locations in 62 countries on all seven continents, spending more than 2000 days in the field. For any one spending time in nature and loving being outdoors like us fly fishermen do I can say that you will sit and watch the 11 episodes with complete awe. I am just trough the fourth episode and I have really enjoyed it so far.

...and more photos

2011-08-01T09:04:00.000+02:00

Here's some of the photos that Anders took from the trip too.

Fishing Lappland 2011 - day 4-6

2011-07-31T22:09:00.003+02:00

Here follow's the rest of the report from our fishing last week, more specifically for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Day 4 - Seriously, more walking? And finding more big trout.
Its silly isn't it, you would have thought that after two days of hard walking and non stop fishing along both ways of the river we would have wanted to have a more calm day. If I recall it correctly that was the original plan but somehow we ended up walking more than the previous two days together on Sunday.

The morning started out with another blue sky and fantastic weather. After breakfast we decided to go up the mountain side all four of us to try and phone home to our families. For some reason we didn't find any service we I had found it before instead we had to go much higher up the mountain side. Once everyone had reached their loved ones Roger planted the idea that since we had already gone quite high up maybe we should try and get to the top and see the view. At that point you would have thought that the rest of us, a little stiff from the previous two days, would have said "no way, we're done walking for a while now" but heck no, we went all the way to the top at 1090 metres and enjoyed it so much! The only regret was that I didn't have the camera or the video cam with me, so this photo from the iPhone was all I got.

Okay, so now that we had gotten the walk going again nothing was gonna stop us. On the north side there was two lakes up on the top of the mountains, both on barely 1000 metres hight. Lakes like this on altitude like that are bound to have arctic char in them, so we decided to cross the river for the climb up the north side mountains aiming at the closest lake.

We did however feel the past days travels in our legs so the other guys felt like a nap for an hour or so would be good before setting out again. I had the trout fever bad so I couldn't go sleep at all, instead decided to fish myself upstream in every pool with big foam flies trying to annoy a big trout so much with it that it was bound to come up in pure aggression to it. I found out that if I fished the big fly downstream dead drift trough rapids into a pool and then fished it home with hard takes on the line I could either get it to go popper like in the surface or dive under it. The last way was way more productive than anything else and I found myself catching slightly bigger trout now, not close to one kilo but still a little bigger than the 25 cm standard size that we'd been catching so many of up until now. A few hundred meters upstream from the camp I did the same thing again, short cast into the end of the rapid and then fed out line downstream so that it floated dead down the pool for about 25-30 metres and I directly caught fish as I started to pull it home again. Then on the third cast it happened, two hard pulls on the line just as it reached the far end of the pool and up comes a head of one of the biggest trout I have seen, I mean it was almost 30 metres from me but I could see the head so clearly as it completely devoured my fly. My heart stopped as I lifted my rod to strike back, and nothing was there, I had missed it. Cursing and disappointment didn't help, neither did 50 casts in a row on the exact same spot. I had missed setting the hook on the trout of my life :(

I had a mix of disappointment and excitement as I got back to camp just to find that the other guys was ready for the trip up the mountain to the lake that supposedly had char in it. So a quick pack up and gear up while I told the others of the missed trout and then we were off walking again. Somehow we missed where we should have gone up and ended up going where the mountain was almost at its steepest, trough rough terrain that held an abnormal amount of flies and mosquitoes. Once we was up over the worst par, completely sweaty, the cool western winds was a relief because it also blew most of the flies and mosquitoes away.

Now let's get one thing clear, I have not been very successful at char fishing in the past. It's so bad it has turned into a reoccurring source of laughter among my friends, so I had a little laid back approach to this lake. I would have loved to have been proven wrong but after more than an hour of fishing it had happened nothing, no rising fish, no strikes or anything else that could prove that there were fish in the lake at all. We did find extensive tracks from four-wheelers around the lake, so the theory was that the native "Samer" people had been doing net fishing in the lake. But it could also be that we sucked at fishing it!

So with nothing else to do we took the westbound way down the mountain aiming to come down somewhere close to the top part of the river to see if any big trouts were there today also. So more walking but this time down the mountain side, also we found that the four-wheeler tracks had made a small road that we could follow all the way which made it much more pleasant than walking trough the otherwise so rough terrain.

We saw more rising fish at the big pool than we had seen before, some really big once far out away from casting distance. Me and Anders fished that while Magnus and Roger went up stream to the slow flowing stretch. Anders managed to get one of the big guys to strike but never managed to set the hook, and the rest of us wasn't successful either. So it was a little disappointing that we had to turn back without any bigger trout from this stretch.

Slowly we fishing our way downstream picking off small trout until we came up to the pool where Roger had have that bigger trout try to come and take the small trout from his fly two day earlier. Into this pool comes a smaller stream with ice cold water from the mountain in the south. It is not like the rest of the river is very warm, just that this little stream is even colder. It's easy to see why it is so cold when you look up the mountain, where the stream begins is a large spot of snow still up there, so the water is pure melt water from snow! Anyway, as we start fishing the pool on the south side Magnus goes down to this little stream to drink, and as he does so he sees this big shadow swim out from it into the bigger pool in the main river. Aprox a two kilo fish who had gone up like 20 meters in the small stream, we would never have guessed such a big trout to go up such a shallow and small stream or we would have not stomped our way down to it.

It was now late and a little cloudy, as close to darkness as we would come up here, and just as I went to go look up in the smaller stream again I hear Roger call out from the pool. As I come back I see him standing with a hard bent rod and Anders beside him ready with a landing net. A bigger fish for sure! A minute or two of fight and then Roger had landed his biggest trout so far, what a beautiful fish! A big black zonker streamer did the work!

A few more contacts with bigger fish left us very happy but very tired, the clock was now waaaay past midnight and it wasn't until three in the morning when we got back to camp. Another fantastic day of climbing, walking, fishing and landing of big fish! Life was extra fair.

Day 5 - Rain, whiskey and more big trout
Sometime during the night between Sunday and Monday it started to rain, heavy rain. After having gotten up late the only plan for this day was to get up to the deep pool again, and to do it for evening and night fishing. Maybe fish a little around the camp upstream mean while. We started a fire and gathered around there with some coffee and some whiskey and then a little more whiskey. To make a long story short we might have had a whiskey or two too much but then again those moments around a fire in the mountains is also part of the whole experience. Laughter, stories, tales, secrets and tears have and will always be shared around such a fire. What is said on the mountain stays on the mountain. Is that easy.

So after a wet afternoon (in double sense) it was time to get serious, gear up and walk upstream to the deep pool once more. While Magnus and Anders headed up there almost directly I felt I needed to give that big trout that had shown its head to me the day before, so I put in about 20 casts in that particular small pool but without success. So I too headed up to the deep pool and met with Magnus who had just landed another beautiful big trout a couple of hg over a kilo, again on a streamer. While Magnus was content with that he soon headed back to camp while me and Anders left to try in the rain. I stubbornly kept fishing dry flies but Anders had switched to big streamers and had long since went into "focus mode" like only he can. I have never fished with anyone who can get so focused in his fishing, not saying a word for hours just placing every cast perfectly one after another until he gets that fish that he is after.

This time was no exception, just as I was wading accross at the lower end of the pool I see how he stands where the small cold stream comes out into the pool with his rod well bent. I reach him just in time to help him net the biggest trout of the trip, 1,4 kilos, and one of the most beautiful ones I have seen. What... a .... fish! I mean, just look at that tail of his!

Now I was just as content as if I had caught it myself and Anders was of course in the state of happsky so with the rain still hammering down on us we called it a night and walked back to camp some 3 kilometres or so down stream from us. A day with very little walking, with our previous standard that is, rain and beautiful trouts came to an end. We fixed up some dinner, shared a beer or two and smoked the mandatory "PB" cigar for the second time on the trip and I crawled into my Ferrino LW2 tent and layed there for quite a while listening to the rain comming down on the tent competing with the sound of the river for my attention. Life felt fair, but also it was hard to believe that we had to leave this place the next day.

Day 6 - Last try and home bound.
Already on the first day the sole on one of Rogers wading shoes had started to loosen, and not only the felt sole but the entire sole. And since most of our walking had meant fishing our way up or downstream we had walked in waders for the entire week. The result was that Rogers shoe now held together only with packing bands and that he had some real problems for the last walk we did over the mountains. But it looked very odd when he came with that band around his foot and the sole sticking out.

I had mentioned earlier that the river was quite shallow and we found out (duh) that this meant that it was quite vulnerable to rain. When we got up that last morning the river had risen around 20 cm from all the rain the day before. Normally I would be worried when a river rises so much but this river being so shallow I thought that the bigger trout would benefit from it. Also having read a report on the internet from guys who had been fishing this river a few years ago they told a story about 90 mm rain in two days and after that they caught several trout over two kilo that had gone down into the river from the bigger lakes on top. So as long as we stayed cloudy we thought we could have a really good chance for big trout one last time on this last day.

We were up early on that last day, the helicopter wasn't gonna come until 15.30 so we figured we could fish well into lunch and then still have a couple of hours to pack up and eat before the helicopter came. We went straight to the deep pool all but Magnus who fished some of the other pools on his way up. Since I was the only one still with a trout over the kilo mark I was left with the spot where the smaller stream came out into the pool which had been by far the best so far. A big Fish skull streamer was on my leader today, finally giving in and keeping the dry fly in the box for this last try. I had several cast where the fish stroke and only caught the tail of the fly and one who I did set the hook too who initially felt like a good fish but turned out to be around the half kilo mark. Both Roger and Anders was in contact with bigger fish too and Roger landed one just under the one kilo mark just as Magnus came back. Then the clouds started to disappeared and the sun shone trough once again and the fish stopped coming. It was that easy, the clear water in combination with the sunshine made the fish very spooky. And afterwards I realized that all of our bigger fish, except from the one Magnus caught on the top stretch, had been caught either in cloudy conditions or in the middle of the night when the light was not as bright.

So with that our fishing in the Dellik-river had come to an end. Oh, except for a few last casts I placed in home pool just to catch one last trout of the trip. We were back to camp and after lunch it was time to pack up. We had plenty of time still, but it was a good thing that we started early with it because the helicopter when it came was 30 minutes too early.

The only thing that was left was to take of our hats and wave goodbye to one of the finest places a man can fish. You can always say that we caught too few big trout for it to be a perfect trip, but it is not always the biggest fish that makes the best trip. For me it was one of the best fishing trips I have been on, period.

Fishing Lappland 2011 - day 1-3

2011-07-26T22:38:00.000+02:00

So here's finally a report from the week of fishing we had in Lappland Sweden 13-20th of july!

Prelude
For me it started by being picked up by Magnus and his girlfriend at home in the afternoon on Wednesday, we then took the one hour drive to meet up with Roger and Anders and move all stuff into Rogers car and then we were off! I love a good road trip, and this was no exception. 1090 kilometres on just over ten hours, yes we had a good speed on the Volvo :) Unable to sleep at all during the night we got a little sleep when we got up there since we were about three hours early before the helicopter was to get us out.

Day 1 - take off, landing and the first trouts
Finally the small camping station opened on Thursday morning and we got to meet Kjell who was the manager there and plan the helicopter lift, pay for it and also pay for the fishing licenses. Still it was about an hour left until the helicopter were to arrive. We took the car back to the lift off position which was beside a small lake and got to start getting our packing out of the car, do a change of clothes and open a beer while we waited. Luckily we didn't have to wait long before the helicopter came! After the weighting in of the luggage (which gave us about 60 kg over weight) it was time to start loading us and the bags in!

Seriously, when you get in that helicopter and hear how the rotors start to go faster and faster, hear the engine start accelerating and then feel how the whole thing sways as it takes the first centimetres upwards it is impossible not to feel like a little boy at christmas. We all sat there with big grins on our faces and they all got bigger and bigger the higher up we came. When the helicopter took up over the sides over the first mountains and we saw the views in front of us.... I don't really have good words to describe it, let's just say that if we'd smiled a little more our heads would have split in half horizontally! We past over three clear mountain ranges the first one held a real valley but the other two were more of mountain plateaus with no trees, small lakes and small streams, a fantastic scenery!

Co pilot "Surpuppan"

I did some extensive filming with the video cam while flying over this fantastic part of our country, I will put together a video from it later this week and it will of course be up here as soon as I am done.

When we past over the third mountain range we suddenly saw it, the river we were gonna fish for the comming six days. Beautifully set in the mountain valley it flowed mainly in a west - east direction with a section just were the river started from a handful of big lakes going north - south. The closer we got down to the river the more excited I got. I saw numerous of small rapids with calm waters in between, big rocks and small "islands" splitting the river at several places. It looked exactly like I wanted it to! The pilot landed us smoothly on the south side of the river, some 8 kilometres down stream from those big lakes that started the river. After a quick unpack we were left there standing in the low shrubbery watching the helicopter go back over the mountains until it disappeared over the mountains.

This was the moment, where all magic lay in front of us, where in theory we could still believe that there were huge trout in every pool, backwater and rapid. Excitement were high and the laughs was many as we set up camp just by the river in a small set of threes. Normally that would be the last place to chose because in the trees like that would be where the mosquitoes would be at the most but it seemed like we had came with bad weathers which called more for shelter from the wind than from mosquitoes. It was only 8-9 degrees with very hard northern winds and grey skies, which made the smooth way our pilot had landed us it even more impressive! Before setting our tents up at the chosen spot we had to take a real look at the river thought, it was magically beautiful, a small rapid just upstream from our camp, with a bigger pool opening up just where we had our tents, could it be the perfect spot?

First fly was tied on and first cast was put out, and I'll be dammed if the first trout wasn't landed too! Despite the weather I felt like a king and we set off, me and Magnus upstream and Roger and Majja downstream, for a couple of hours fishing before getting back for some food and and a fire. Several trouts had been landed already, all of them small 25 cm or so. The first exploration showed that the river was quite clear and quite shallow, at least on the spots we had time to fish so far. Anders did some cast in our home pool and came back with a really nice trout at around 35-40 cm or so. We found a good spot to make a fire with shelter from the hard wind and we spent the evening sitting there sharing that trout, some drinks, cigars and laughs. Life was fair.

Day 2 - walking upstream and the first trout over one kilo
Day two begun and it was obvious that we had very different conditions today. The sun was shining and it was almost no winds. The river now displayed all its glory under the blue skies and the high mountains around it, and if we'd thought it was clear the day before it was nothing now when the sun had come forth, you could see every rock and stone on the bottom.

We decided to fish our way upstream a bit before lunch and it wasn't like the river got uglier the more we saw of it. Rapids and small pools all the way and often no wider then you could reach cast just across it. Behind every stone and in every backwater, rapid, pool and.. well, everywhere there was trout! It was not like it was hard to find one to cast to, the trouble was more to find some of bigger size. Then Magnus out of the blue hooked something much bigger, unable to hold it in the pool he was fishing in and just as he was thinking of following it down stream it stepped off, so there were bigger fish there but extremly hard to sneak up upon and of course we didn't make it easier on ourselves fising only dry flies.

As we came up above a longer flow of rapids we approached the longest stretch of slow flowing water we had come across so far. Roger positioned himself so that he could cast towards the shore line across the current to some trout who was rising. After having landed a few he quietly said to us that he had a bigger one who was up head and tail. After several futile of getting him to rise we gave up and signalled to Magnus that who was upstream that we were about to get back to camp for lunch. He came back to us telling us that in the pool above he had caught about 30 trout, almost fish on every cast, and even though smaller once he too had seen not one but three larger trouts that had risen but had not been able to get them to strike.

I was a little concerned with the fact that we had not found any deeper spots at all in the river, and also the crystal clear water in combination with the sunny weather was gonna make it very hard to sneak up on any bigger fish. But it was no concern really, we still had tons of exploration to do and we were confident that we were to find bigger fish and deeper pools. So after lunch we decided to walk our way directly to where we had stopped for lunch and also packed down dinner and field kitchen so that we could be away upstream much longer this time.

Before that I decided to see if I could find mobile service if I were to walk up the mountain on our side of the river. I did find descent service about 20 minutes walk up the mountain side, about 50 meters above the tree line. So I could now phone home and let everyone know we had landed safely and that we had a great time. The view from up there was fantastic!

So we started out to fish as long upstream as we could, to where the fishing licenes was valid, which was just below the lakes where the river started. A quick check on the map showed it to be about 3 kilometres so how hard could it be? What we didn't know then was that I had checked the map wrongly, it was actually the double distance and the terrain was dreadful to walk in. But we didn't know that as we set off upstream and started where Magnus had seen those bigger trout earlier. They were no where to be seen now but there still was a lot of small trout in that pool. We walked on upstream and the scenery slowly changed to a more tree less country as we gained meter after meter in altitude and with it came the shrubbery and svamp like suroundings that often replaces the trees as you get higher.

The river was quite similar every where, rapids followed by a wider shallow pool, I think we saw no place deeper than one and a half meter any where. There was no real change in the size of the trout, we caught so many around 25 cm you lost count of them, all on dry flies.

Anders and Magnus fishing one of the stunningly beautiful pools

Before we had left for this trip we had seen a video on Youtube where some guys fished this river and in one pool a guy gets on a little trout and while taking him in a BIG trout comes and try to swim away with this small trout that is still caught on this guys fly, really cool! Now about two and a half kilometres upstream from our camp we found the most interesting pool so far, and as it would turn out the best spot for the entire trip, it was much deeper the any we'd come across so far and had a good steady flow into some rapids where the river split in two streams for about 50 metres. As I was fishing along side Roger I saw him get a take on his dry fly but it didn't look spectacular in any way, but all of a sudden the fish took away and his rod was bend hard way down! Then after a few seconds it seems like the fish had tired already and Roger reeled him in just to find a 20 cm trout on the fly with one operculum missing! Now that was clearly a bigger trout who had gone after the smaller one, just like on that video we'd seen! This happened not only once but twice this trip as Anders had the same thing happen to him in the same pool a couple of days later.


Yes, there were mosquitoes there!

Strengthened by this we kept going upstream to the bigger pools just below the lake, stopping for some occasional fishing now and then and also a longer stop for dinner a couple of kilometres downstream from our final goal. As we got there we had became rather tired from the long walking in rough terrain but the big deep pool who had fish rising as we approached it made it easy to regain strength. Supposedly there was going to be a bridge that marked the end of where we could fish but so far we were yet to see one, so we fished away. Anders and Roger fished the bigger pool and me and Magnus fished the slow flowing stretch above it. Things were different here, the rising fish looked much bigger the river flowed much slower over sand bottom instead of rocks, it was like we stumbled in on another river completely. Magnus and I approached two rising fish slowly, I had a big Blasphemy hopper on and he had a big Streaking caddis on, the strikes came just after each other. First it was like someone had shot a bazooka on my big fly as it disappeared on a big splash of water, I stroke back but there was nothing on the other end, dammed! Just a second afterwards the same destiny betook Magnus fly, but he too missed out on striking back and we both stood there with silly grins on our faces as we kept fishing.


Magnus showing off his William Joseph Exdous back/pack combo. They worked so good on our long walks.

After a while I decided to get up to the rapids above this slow flowing stretch and Magnus stayed about 100 metres downstream from me slowly fishing his way up to the point where a smaller stream came out into our river. I could see from a range how he got a fish on, and it did look different from any others we'd caught so far. After a good fight with a good bent rod and a couple of minutes fighting it the first trout over one kilo came up, a good 1,2 kilo trout which unfortunately didn't get caught on photo since I was too far upstream and Anders was still down in the deep pool.

Myself I hooked into my two biggest trout so far, but landed only only, not quite up to the kilo mark but still a very nice fish at about 0,6-0,7 kilo. It was past midnight as we decided to give up and start the rough walk home again, and as we past the slow flowing stretch that Magnus had caught his nice fish on we found the foundation to the bridge, but no bridge, so now we knew where the end of the permitted fishing zone was. All that was left now was for an hour or an hour and a half walk back in the calm rain that had started to fall back to camp. Needless to say I fell asleep directly when I zipped up my sleeping bag and closed my eyes. Again life was fair.

Day 3 - much more walking
After a long nights sleep we awoke again to fantastic sunny weather. When we had arranged with the helicopter and payed for the licenses the manager at the small camp had suggested us to stay down at a bridge that was downstream from where we were, according to the map some 6-7 kilometres to walk. The plan this time was to walk first and then fish ourselves upstream all the way back. The walk was probably even harder than the day before, but the river kept dazzle us with its beauty and now as we walked down stream we also kept going lower and lower which made the landscape around the river change, more trees the further we got. But still shrubbery and swamp so it was not a very easy walk this time either.

Sneaking up on trout from above

Apart from mosquitoes there was another life form that kept showing up all the time sometimes in ridiculous amounts, the lemmings! Every where we went they ran around our feet, often screaming at us at high pitch while showing their teeth. It is so hard to find such a cuddly cute little critter scary, but hopefully it works for them on other predators. At several occasions we saw them swim across the slower parts of the river and just held our breaths waiting for a big trout to come up and take them, but regretfully we never saw it!

Eventually we reached the bridge, a much harder walk than the day before and realized that from the bridge and downwards it was a long shallow rapid area as far as we could see. I walked downstream fishing from there and it was like this for at least a kilometre. So we had our lunch there and started to fish our way back to the camp. To make a long story (or walk rather) short we fished most of the bigger pools but apart from a couple of 0.5 kg trout that I caught there was nothing interesting caught really. I actually felt like there was fewer trout down hear than upstream so it didn't at that point feel like we were gonna fish a whole lot more downstream at this trip.

Anders "Majja" Maijgren fishing the downstream area.

A dinner by the river when we got back and a couple of sips of single malt together was all that was left after another day filled with walking, almost 40 kilometres over the past two days, was to again zip up the sleeping bag and fall into a nice warm sleep with the sound of the river following my down into never never land. Again life was fair to me.

The packing list

2011-07-13T12:46:00.000+02:00

With a good packing list you won't forget anything and you also won't pack anything that you don't really need. Here's My packing list for this trip, originally made for us by my friend Björn Arkenfall who is (when he's with us) the project leader for all our trips. The original packing list had over 300 items on it, I managed to get it down to about 100 :)

sorry for any typos in he quick translation :)

DLSR camera

Tripod

Normal lens

Camera cleaning kit

Camera bag

Zoom lens

Toilet bag

Deoderant

Soap

Tooth brush

Tooth paste

Clothes - Layer 1 socks

Clothes - layer 1 long johns

Clothes - layer 1 briefs

Clothes - layer 1 shirts

Clothes - layer 2 fleece pants

Clothes - layer 2 hood

Clothes - layer 2 thick fleece jacket

Frukostbröd

oat flakes

bread

coffee

chocolate

Spices

Milk powder

Musli

Pasta - Tortellini

Past - other

Soups

The

Whisky

Beer

Glues

Clothes - Boots

Clothes - Beanie

Clothes - shell pants

Mobile phone

Sun glassess

Fuel

Fork/knife/Spoon

Dishwasher detergent

Dishwasher spunge

Drinking bottle

Towel

Map

Knife, allround

Knife, Fillet knife

Can oppener

Drinking cup

Sleeping mat

Paper

Pen

Bug sample plastic jar

Plastic bags

Back pack

Sleeping bag

Dishwashing steelpads

Plate

Toilet paper

Field kitchen

Tent

Lighters

Matches

Candles

Head lamp

Water proof bag

Medical supplies

Sun block

Water proof camera bag

VCR

Chest pack

Scale

Fly tying kit

Flies - nymfs

Flies - Streamers

Flies - Dry flies

Fly reel 1

Fly reel 2

Fly rod 1 - five weight

Fly rod 2 - Three weight

Floating gel

Landing net

Anti mosqutio cream

Polaroid glasses

Leaders, mono

Leaders, braided float

Leaders fast sink

Tippets 0.12

Tippets 0.16

Tippets 0.20

Waders

Wading boots

CD's

Pipe

Pipe tobaco

Good to go!

2011-07-12T22:16:00.000+02:00

So all is packed now clothes, food, whiskey, camera, VCR, flies, reels, rods, waders, wading boots, wading jacket, landing net, leaders, tippets, chest packs, field kitchen, sleeping bag, tent, sleeping mat... and a whole lot more! Tomorrow evening we leave for the 13 hour long drive, and then the helicopter flight to BROWN TROUT LAND!!!!

I might post up short reports on Facebook if I have coverage during the week, anyway expect a full report here when I get back!

One pipe to rule them all!

2011-07-10T20:59:00.000+02:00

For the past four years or so I've enjoyed smoking my pipe when gone fishing, the summer two years ago I lost mine when float tubing for pike at home, so last summer I was without a pipe. So I decided to get me something special not for this year. And the other day I got my new majestic 26 cm fishing pipe! I am the new Gandalf!

Four days to go!

2011-07-09T09:26:00.000+02:00

Took the family to a cruise with the ferry to Finland and back for a couple of days. Got myself a bottle of Laphroigh Quarter cask (fantastic!) for the trip and the kids had so much fun.

Now with only four days left to the trip the final preparations start, some last minute buys and then packing!

Twitter

2011-07-05T08:48:00.002+02:00

So I am now on Twitter... not sure why though :) But if you want, come find me #UlfHagstrm

Freestyling

2011-07-04T07:45:00.000+02:00

Sometimes, when you are in the right state of mind, it is so much fun to sit down at the vise with just a rough idea on what you want to do and do some freestyle tying.

I did that the other night, a rough idea on a caddis pattern where I wanted to use some more realistic style trailing legs on it because those legs on a real caddis has to be an important feature for the fish to look for. Especially on a caddis that flutters around on the surface using both the long legs and the wings to get it to move around on the water surface.

So I ended up with this, the CDC wing is not perfect but I think it turned out nicely anyway, three pairs of long legs trailing back on each side looking yummy!

Ten days left...

2011-07-03T08:30:00.000+02:00

It is now ten days left to this summers big fishing trip up north. Apart from tying a lot of flies other preparations are done, the renewal of some equipment is very much needed. For those of you who has never been to the Swedish mountain region you should know that the weather is very special. It changes extremely fast and you are bound have almost every weather possible up there if you are there for a week like we are. And the fact that we are hiking and camping also calls for the need for good equipment, you can't have clothes that let you get moist of wet the first day because it is almost impossible to dry any clothes if you don't by luck get a full day of sunshine...

New tent, sleeping bag, wader jacket, underwear, waders, boots have all been needed. Almost done with all the things I needed to buy but I am still need to get myself new waders and boots this coming week. Then I am counting the days until I can get in the car with Majja, Surpuppan and Mad dogg for the 13 hours drive up north, the helicopter flight to the river and then that elusive, fantastic, long awaited FIRST CAST!

Sometimes things get out of hand....

2011-07-02T19:25:00.001+02:00

I started tying some Blasphemy hoppers for the box but wondered off in the land of foam and rubber legs... and somewhere things got a little out of control.... :D

The Blasphemy

"Amy's ant"

"The pink pookie"

The Juanna be HJ

And finally.... (drumroll) I give you.... The Humiliator!

While I was at it I did a pink Humiliator also

THE box!

2011-06-28T23:15:00.000+02:00

Yes, I know that there are three flies missing, but those were lost last sunday when fishing. I officially consider myself done with the first box, a little proud too! :D

Filling the fly box - 24

2011-06-28T19:59:00.000+02:00

There are some patterns that are truly Swedish, that you will find in every Swedish fly fishermans fly box. One of those is definitely the Streaking caddis! Lennart Bergkvist and Kenneth Boström created this large caddis pattern to imitate the BIG Prygranea Grandis caddis as it flutters across the surface leaving a remarkable trace. It's basically a deer hair sedge not too unlike a Muddler fly in apperance and how you fish it.

I've had so many good fish on this pattern trough the years, often in smaller sizes, but I like to include a large one (like this one) in the box just as an attractor to be able to lure up the trout even though nothing might be hatching for the moment.

Big and fuzzy!!

Filling the fly box - 23

2011-06-28T19:51:00.000+02:00

It has happened more than once, you see the fish rising to something, you can't see what it is and it is probably an tiny emerger because the surface is dead flat and you still see fish rising everywhere. Time like that call for a small black fly, preferably an emerger!

I like to have quite a few CDC fibers point backwards, gives a nice foot print IMO.

Filling the fly box - 22

2011-06-23T20:11:00.000+02:00

There are a few patterns that you really NEED to have in your box, especially if you fish up north in Sweden where there can be dominance on caddis flies over a long period of time. One of those patterns gotta be the G & H Sedge, or "Goddards sedge" as it is often called.

I like it in an olive version, with a light coloured "body" underneath to make it stand out against the deer hair "wings" on top. This fly is not that much about how you tie it, much more on how you cut it! I had been reluctant to tying it for this box because I have never been really good at that cutting thing, but I came to realize that it has been almost eight years since I last tied it, and I have developed so much since then so once I sat down and tied it I was quite happy with the end result!

Filling the fly box - 21

2011-06-22T07:04:00.000+02:00

If I'm correct there are only four patterns left until this box is filled now!

This fly was something I experimented with a few years ago when I wanted to have an impressionistic caddis pattern to fish with when there are egg laying caddis on the surface. The messy looking CDC gives a really good footprint and it sits perfectly on the surface with part of the abdomen submerged.

I think I need to do a little photo shoot of all the patterns in the box with how they sit on the surface when I am done with this first box!

Filling the dry fly box - 20

2011-06-21T20:13:00.000+02:00

Hell yeah, the twentieth patter in the box. Never thought I'd have this much patience but I just can't stop!

To me the "Royal" series of flies have never been a major thing, although I caught my first ever fish in fly fishing on a Royal Wulff some eleven years ago or so. There are quite a few famous ones, the named Wullf being one and Royal Coachman of course being another. Last year when I was tying at the Dutch fly fair in Zwolle in Holland I got to sit next to my fellow Swedish fly tyer Johan Klinkberg and at one time asked him which his favourite dry fly was and his (to me) suprising answer was Royal Trude!?

I had something in the back of my head on the Trude series of flies but I had to look it up to know exactly what it was. I had to take to word from someone who fishes so much more than me trough a season so I tied some up last year and fished with them for the first time in a small newly opened fishery about one and a half hours drive from where I lived. It was the only fly that I got in contact with fish with that day so I think it has its place in the dry fly box for this summer too.

Trout fishing yesterday

2011-06-20T22:12:00.000+02:00

So I took the three and a half hour drive to the fishery Tiveden Flyfish yesterday to meet up with my friends Björn, Gnidde and Majja. The weather was absolutely dreadful the whole day, it rained on us constantly the whole day. So it was challenging to fish dry flies but I did a fair try at it and we did catch a couple of fish on dry, but most fish was taken on nymphs. It was a very nice little stream and the potential for big fish, both rainbow and trout, feels to be good.

Here's a little nerdy wanna be video clip I put together on the coolest strike of the day, a real loco!!!

Tomorrow

2011-06-18T22:43:00.000+02:00

I was THIS close to finishing the dry fly box... now I "have to" go stick a few flies up some trees tomorrow and maybe catch a fish or two on the way. Oh yes, tomorrow is Dry or Die part I for the almost finished first box as I am going with The Bear, Gnidde and Majja to a nice stream about three and a half hours drive from me.

It's been talk on rain and shitty weather but I don't care, I am going trout fishing for the first time in a long while!

Report and photos when I am back tomorrow night or on Monday.

Filling the fly box - 19

2011-06-17T09:28:00.000+02:00

One of my earliest fly fishing experiences was when me and my friends took the tough climb up the mountain plateau of "Fulufjäll" here in Sweden. I was very much a rookie of fly fishing (when do you stop being a rookie and call yourself experienced?) back then but we had a great few days up there catching a lot of small brown trouts in the small streams that flowed between all of the small lakes up there.

This fly was superiour up there, but I remember that I had only two of these with me and I lost them both after two days fishing and couldn'r really find a fly to match it for the remaining days. This particular fly is tied by my friend Henrik Larsson which is just good because I really suck at tying this fly myself! :)

Filling the fly box - 18

2011-06-16T20:15:00.000+02:00

For some flies it is not the fishes you caught on it yourself that you remember most clearly but fishes caught by other people.

Like this ant pattern of mine. About two years ago I ran into a friend on a fly tying show and the first thing he told me was what fantastic fishing he'd had on my ant pattern when fishing it in Norway the year before. Now that is one of the best grades of a fly patter; that someone else believed in it so much to tie it and fish with it and also catching fish on it!

So even though it may be a little over enthusiastic I still think it is worth the extra time in this Ant pattern of mine!

Filling the fly box - 17

2011-06-15T08:20:00.000+02:00

Just like the Adams being in almost every fly fishermans dry fly the Elk hair caddis sits proudly next to it. One of the most fished, infamous trout catchers there is. I have had my fair share of fishing with it, but it was mainly in the beginning of my fly fishing. The past years it has not been fished as much, but I will give it a fair chance this summer and it is always good to have it sitting there in the box to try if nothing else works.

Filling the fly box - 16

2011-06-14T09:23:00.000+02:00

Last night at sat down and freestyled a little at the vise, had a rough idea for a smaller caddis fly that I wanted to try, it didn't quite turn out like I had it picture in my head but rather good anyway!

I give you the "Rudolph is dead caddis"....! Yeah, I am very proud of the name, after a little sip of single malt last night it dawned on me, perfect! It is a reference to the fact that the wing is made from reindeer hair, underwing is natural CDC and the extended body is a trip of tapered foam.

Filling the fly box - 15

2011-06-13T09:15:00.000+02:00

Roman Moser's Balloon caddis, not a pattern I have used a whole lot but given the fact that so many people says its such a good pattern I think I need to fish it a whole lot more.

I know that Mr. Moser developed this more as a emerging Caddis than an adult so I have always liked to tie it with a darker thorax more like a caddis pupa.

Past the half way mark now, looking good!

Filling the fly box - 14

2011-06-11T15:24:00.000+02:00

Now over the course of the 11 years or so that I have been fly fishing it is one fly that I have probably fished it more than all others together. It has caught me so many fish both in still water and stream fishing, I am of course talking about the famous Klinkhammer special!

To me it is the perfect dry fly for stream fishing, especially for fast flowing streams because it is so easy to spot even in really rough water. Over the years I have fished with an green/olive, a red and a gray version most but the green/olive has to be my favourite.

In particular I remember my first Grayling over the one kilo mark back in 2004 when we were fishing the Rosto river up north. We'd had terrible weather for most of the trip but the last few days things started to happen for us and we were closing in on the one kilo fishes we were there for. Last day I was fishing a narrow slow flowing part of the river just as it turned into a big almost lake like section. I managed to cast my red klinkhammer just about a meter from the shore on the other side where we've seen sporadic rises of what looked to be nice fish. After just a meter or so dead drift a fish took my fly, and just as I was about to strike back I slipped in the mud and fell backwards making it an incredibly violent strike of the fly! I felt it was a nice fish and after a short fight with the five weight I neted my first one kilo Grayling meassuring at exactly half a meter!

Filling the fly box - 12 and 13

2011-06-11T15:01:00.000+02:00

Yeah, I kept tying but just didn't have the time to post it here in the same phase, I am on fire now!! :)

Added two new patterns that I haven't tried before, both tied by Dave McPhail. The first is the Green peter caddis. I really liked the look of this emering caddis with its organza abdomen! Those "horns" are a nice touch too!

The second one turned out as a variant of that half blood prince, I added orange barred rubber legs to it instead, nice little attractor caddis!!!

Filling the fly box - 11

2011-06-09T19:15:00.000+02:00

The Stimulator fly has never really been a favourite of mine, I've always regarded is at too big and "clumpsy" for my taste. But last year I fished it for real for the first time and had quite an interesting fishing for Grayling with it, and I can really see its potential as an attractor pattern for big trout which I am after this summer!

This colour combo was something I found on the internet and I liked it a lot! Bare with me that these are the first Stimulators that I have ever tied so they might not look very good, should work fine for fishing anyway. One more pattern until half the box is filled!

Linked tying: The half blood prince Hopper

2011-06-08T19:49:00.000+02:00

Dave McPhail shouldn't need any introduction, the man has set a fantastic standard with all his fly tying instructions videos on the internet. Not only have I learned a few tips and tricks from his tutorial I have also learned some new patterns that I hadn't seen before.

I've always been fond of attractor type dry flies and this looks like a great buggy dry to be able to draw up grumpy trouts from the bottom! Check it out!

Filling the fly box - 10

2011-06-08T19:22:00.001+02:00

Well you all knew this was gonna be in the box didn't you? Of my own pattern the SRM emerger is the one that I get asked about the most and get to show at fairs and demos most frequently.

It has it's own story behind how it was created, and I have quite a few memorable fishes to it, it is hard to pick one really but it was special to me that this fly was the only fly that caught me fish in Lower Itchen when I was in England two years ago. This is the intro text for an article I wrote on this fly for Hatches magazine two years ago:

“For the sixth time I place the CDC fly upstream from the long shadow at the verge of the gravel on the bottom and for the sixth time I see it pass him without any reaction. Further upstream I see Chris catch another good sized grayling. Dammed it, why won’t this particular fish rise to the one fly that seems to be working for everyone else today. In my frustration I put a little too much force in the back cast and I feel how the fly hooks into the bushes and then the tippet snips off.

I do a quick consideration if I should go back to Chris and get another CDC fly or if I should try something else. While thinking about it I see the fish rise once more from it’s lair in the gravel and take something just below the surface. So far I had only seen them take the duns as they sail past but that looked much more like a rise to an emerging nymf. Slight tremble in my hands as I put on a new tippet and a size 18 SRM emerger. Two false cast, and then easy on the back cast and… yes! Perfect placing about two meter straight upstream from the fish! In slow motion I see how the fish backs off, quick movement in the tail fin and more than anything it looks like it’s just floating up towards to surface to meet my fly, opens its mouth and, YES! Strike! Oh my, it’s a trout… and a good sized one too!”

Two More patterns then I am half way trough the first box!

Filling the fly box - 9

2011-06-08T09:48:00.000+02:00

It was time to get into one of my "own" patterns. I put that like that because eventhough I have worked it over for several years it spawned as a variant of the classic Mohican Mayfly from one of my heroes Oliver Edwards. Simplified and worked down in sizes it uses a simple foam body tied on a needle, a poly wing and a compressed hackle; the SRM dun!

This is one fly that I have fished A LOT over the years. I first used it some 8 years ago when fishing in a couple of lakes in western Sweden. We were there for the Vulgata hatching but had not timed it very good after a cold spring, so we had a descent hatch of Lephtolebia's instead. Being a mid-sized mayfly (around 11-12 mm in size) I needed something much smaller than the big Mohican inspired foam mayflies that I had and as usually I had brought a lot of fly tying gear with me and again it was well worth the weight! I didn't have a needle with me to tie the abdomen on so I clipped the hook eye from a thin wire hook and tried using that instead, it did get slightly bigger than the real thing but the trout didn't seem to mind because I caught a couple of very nice ones just around the one kilo mark.

Another thing around this fly that is quite funny is the fact that it is one of my friend Magnus favourite flies. Three years ago I had tied five of these and given him for the trip we were going to make to Jokkmokk and another longer trip that he was going to directly after that. He went on another couple of trips that summer, including one to Russia and a few big ones the summer after that aswell. Then last year when we were going together to Jämtland for a short three day trip he picked out a fly from his box and tied on. It was one of those SRM duns, it had only one tail left, just a couple of hackle straws left and the wing was just a little lump of white something on top. It was so chewed at by fish but he still fished it with confidence! I made sure to tie him a handful of new ones after that.

Filing the fly box - 8

2011-06-07T19:44:00.000+02:00

Yes, it is the "Superpuppa"! Famous Swedish floating caddis pupa created by Kenneth Boström and Lennart Bergquist back in late 70's.

The orginial is tied with a larger hackle which is then cut on both the underside and the top side. I however like to leave the top side uncut because it makes the fly much easier to see! You can tie it in any combination of colours as long as you keep the back side lighter coloured and the thorax darker coloured.

The first time I was in Jämtland to fish back in 2005 I was fishing opposite my friend Magnus at the top of a very nice neck of a small river. It was getting darker and I was having trouble seeing my Klinkhammer which normally is one of the most visible dry flies. I was catching nothing and Magnus was picking trout after trout opposite me, when I asked what he was fishing he replied "Superpuppa", my reply was "How the heck do you see it on the surface" he replied "I see it when the trout rises to it". Ever since that evening I always keep a handful of these flies in my box.

The list

2011-06-06T23:23:00.000+02:00

I need to write down some of the dry fly patterns I need to tie, seem to forget them every time I sit down to tie!

SRM emerger
Foam dun
CDC "killer" variant
Ants
SMS beetle
Olive Klinkhammer
Elk hair caddis
Streaking caddis
The Blasphemy hopper
The patriot
Royal trude
Funnel dun
Loch ordie Sedge hog
Stimulator

...........

I need to sleep on it to remember more. Still could need a tip or two!

Filling the fly box - 7

2011-06-06T22:12:00.000+02:00

It's not much variation on the subject is it? :)

So ask anyone to do a list over their most popular dry flies and I could almost bet you that every single one will had the Adams on the list somewhere. Even so it has never been a clear favourite of mine, but of course I have fished it on and off over the years. One of the clearest memories of fishing with it is from 2004 when we were up in an area far, far, far up north called Sandåslandet. We've had the first three days of really bad weather and too high waters in the river we fished. On the fourth day the sun broke trough and the fish started rising. I found a small pocket of backwater above a large neck of the river where apparently there were a vast amount of grayling eating. I had about an hours fishing where I had fish on every other cast, it was so welcomed after such bad start!

I like to fish the Adams in smaller sizes, and in size 16 it makes for such a good imitation of anything small on the surface. I am far from a master of doing these style of flies, but they work for fishing!

Filling the fly box - 6

2011-06-05T07:50:00.000+02:00

Okay, so after a few days recovering from an epic get together with my ale and stout society on Wednesday I was back at the vise again yesterday finishing off dry fly no 6 for the box!

The "Nalle phu" is a real national fly from Finland created by Simo Lumme who arguable might be the most known fly tyer to come out of our eastern neighbours. The name means "Winnie the pho" and the reason for that is that originally the colours used in the fly was yellowish and red which shouls look similar to the colours of the popular honey eating bear figure. I am not very true to the original, I have dropped the ribbing on the body as well as replaced the wing (originaly used Bear hairs) to poly yarn.

This is one of my absolute favourite dry fly of all times and as such it has quite a few stories to it. When I bough my first fly fishing gear I also bought quite a lot of flies which I started to fish with, but soon afterwards I also bough my first fly tying equipment and started tying flies. It took me a while to get so confident in my own creations to actually use them for fishing, but once I did this pattern was the first of my own tied flies to catch me fish up at Fulufjäll mountain in northern Sweden.

I also remember a really windy day along the Rostoetno river some seven years ago. With the wind in my back I realized I could get the wind to help me mimic the frantic movement of an egglaying caddis. With just like 10 meters of line out and a long leader I simply just flicked up the line and raised to rod leaving only the fly on the surface, sliding, skipping and skateing like crazy. The trout (and grayling) got crazy from this, half the time they missed their strikes from the quick movement of the fly but they were quickly at it again!

Filling the fly box - 5

2011-06-01T13:07:00.000+02:00

So after a few caddis patterns it is time for a little mayfly pattern! The comparadun I have fished with off and on for the past years but this version that uses both CDC and deer I fished with the first time last year.

What I like with the comparadun patterns is the clear footprint it makes on the surface, that it is very visible and that it sits so good in the film. I remember when we were fishing in the Pärlälven river far up north of Sweden the second time back in 2007, there were far and between with hatches but on the third day the sun broke trough and we got a nice fishing on the top of a long stretch of fast water. As I stood waded out about 10 meters out in the river trying to reach a fish that rose repeatedly out in the current a fish started to rise just by the shore line, a few centimeters out. I couldn't make out what it took, I saw nothing on the surface but I didn't want to wait and put on something else so I casted the deer hair comparadun I had on to it. Schlurp! It took it directly, a nice grayling who of course was released back again. The bigger fish kept rising out in the current, I can't remember if I ever got that one but the fact that I can't remember probably means I didn't! :)

Here is a very nice video tutorial from Dave McPhail tying this particular comparadun variant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFKOMYU3Ed4

Filling the fly box - 4

2011-05-30T23:15:00.000+02:00

This is a pattern that I tied and fished with for the first time last season but it quickly became a favourite. At the short trip up northen Sweden to Jämtland that I took together with my friend Magnus "Surpuppan" I remember one fish in particular, it was not a huge fish by any standard but the fish you catch don't have to be for you to remember them.

This particular grayling had been rising at the brink of the deepest part of the neck of the river we were fishing in. We found ourselves in the middle of a hatch of small caddis flies but nothing that I put on seamed to make the fish want to rise to it, eventually I started trying all kinds of flies not even close to the once hatching but it wasn't until I put this pattern on that the fish finally rose to my fly and I hooked and landed it. Effort for my tries!

The Charlie Cravens "Muggly caddis" is really a fantastic buggy dry fly that once it is treated with floatant will float for a couple of years or so creating a great footprint on the surface. If you somehow have missed out on Charlie's flies be sure to check his "Charlies fly box" website out. You can find the Step-by-step tutorial for this fly here: http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/details.cfm?parentID=13

Dry fly patterns

2011-05-30T19:30:00.000+02:00

So I have two empty bug luggage boxes that I aim to fill during the two months that is left until my big one week trip this summer. Even though I have some days before that as well that I am planning on fishing it is for that trip that I tie most of the flies. And I really like to be doing this, I haven't sat down like this in good time to tie for my own box and for a particular trip for four or five years or something.

One thing that I realized though is that if I keep doing 5-6 of each pattern I am gonna end up with 48 different patterns in the two boxes.... and my imagination will probably run out after about or so! So I need YOUR help with tipping me on dry fly patterns that I need for my box, remember it is mainly a brown trout trip and I need it to be dry flies. The more unusual the pattern the better

And don't say "Adams" because that is the first dry fly that everyone mentions and it is already on my list on patterns that I am gonna do :)

Filling the fly box - 3

2011-05-29T23:20:00.000+02:00

A fly with no story yet, hoping to have a few good ones to it after this summer. It's the floating caddis pupa that I posted a few days ago, here filling its own row (almost) of the fly box. Although I have fished similar patterns previously I have not fished this one yet. I have real believe in it, will be tested for the first time for real on the 19th of june when I am off for a days fishing at Tiveden fly fish.

Filling the fly box - 2

2011-05-29T12:47:00.002+02:00

I haven't been fly fishing as long as many others, even though I have fished my entire life I started fly fishing just over ten years ago. Still it seems that most patterns I tie that I have fished with in the past have some kind of story to them. Some weird ones and some regular fishing stories.

The next fly to end up in the fly box for this summers fishing is one that most be more weird than fishing in its content because I myself have not caught anything remarkable on it... yet! I think you know the story, at least some of you do, from when I was fishing in England back in 2009. Chris Reeves took me and Teddy Patlen to go fish the lower Itchen, one of the famous chalk streams of souther England. The year before Chris had taken Johan Klingberg who had totally ruled the river with a small black CDC sedge that he had also given Chris. Since I didn't have anything close to that in my box Chris gave me one of his as we started fishing. Stubborn as I am I started one of my own patterns but when Chris started catching more and more fish on his black CDC sedge I felt I needed to put one on myself, so I tied on the one I got from him. First cast and I lost in the trees, bugger! A quick stroll back to Chris (who was still catching fish on his) and I got another one from his box. Well, history have a habit of repeating itself doesn't it? Yep, up in the trees again. This time I felt a little shameful asking Chris for another one so I waited a little while, but since he (and Teddy) was now catching fish all the time and I didn't I took the walk of shame and asked for one more.

Needles to say I lost that third one in the trees as well, and this time I didn't have the nerve to ask for another one. Instead I put on a small SRM emerger of my own and caught a very nice trout in the first cast. Chris is always quick to remind me that I have decorated the trees along the bank of the Itchen with his flies. So even though I didn't catch anything on that particular fly that day I always try to have a few in my box because I have seen how effective it can be!

The fly itself is dead simple, basically it is an F-fly with the CDC feathers tied in at back at the hook and then folded to the hook eye where they are tied down and folded again and tied down as a wing. So just two foldings of the CDC with a couple of fibres left sticking out at the back and at the front.

Filling the fly box - 1

2011-05-28T23:06:00.000+02:00

So as you understand from my post the other day (the strange try at poetry) I am going to fill a fly box from scratch for my summer fishings. My aim is to tie up 5-6 of a vast number of dry fly patterns that I believe in for the summer, as I have almost two months to do it I really feel great to just tie for myself for once!

Previous years we have often gone away to places where there are a good spread of both Grayling and trout or often more Graylings than trout but this year the main trip is to a place which holds only trout so it's natural to start with a classic... grayling fly!?!

Yes, the Red tag is a fly that in Sweden is very well known as a classic grayling fly but bare with me for a second and let me tell you a story. Back in 2001 we went on our first real advanced mountain trip when we went with helicopter out to the Kaitum river, know for it's huge population of graylings, so obviously we had stocked on good grayling flies. So the first day we ended up fishing quite a lot with red tags, and my friend Björn found a little pocket in a fast flowing section of the big river where he stood for several hours.. picking trout after trout on the red tag! As good as it was on the grayling that day it was even better for the trout on that section. So ever since then I make sure to keep a few red tags in my trout boxes aswell, it is one of those "if nothing else works" kind of fly for the trout.

Strengthen yourself

2011-05-28T19:44:00.000+02:00

If there is one thing I've learned it's that sooner or later most problems get solved, think about it; how many "problems" in your life have you lived with for longer than six months, a year? Not many I would guess. If you instead think of all, big or small, issues/problems/challenges that you have faced the past year and solved/over come I think that you will find that list to be rather long.

Put that down in an actual list on paper and you will see how many things you manage to deal with over time. And the next time something comes along that feels heavy on your shoulders, or when it feels like there is a little too much uphill in your life, bring that list out and I think you will feel very strengthen by you history as a problem solver! :)

I've always been a very positive kind of guy, there's a Swedish expression that goes "det löser sig" which roughly would translate into "it will resolve" that I've always lived after. But over the past years I have found myself slowly getting more and more weighted down by events occurring and I have had a hard time seeing all the good things that I have in my life just because I have focused too much on the negative things. But the other day I started to think about things that I have overcome or solved over only the past 6 months and that made me feel like a new man.

I've talked a lot with my oldest son lately after some turbulence with him, being 6 years old he is in a real defiant age and find himself with a lot of frustration and fights with us and his friends. I have been trying to teach him that there are two things that are important to remember and that is to 1. Be kind to EVERYONE and 2. Be happy! I have now also realized that I have myself forgotten to be no.2 (happy), so now we both try to change our paths and focus on having fun and being happy with everything we do, and doing things together is a real easy way of making sure that we both are happy.

So sit down, make that list and then open yourself a cold one and feel a little happier! Cheers!

The empty fly box

2011-05-25T19:18:00.000+02:00

The empty fly box, a sorry sight to see

but dreams of joy it brings to me

Dreams of streams and trout and midnight sun

Of places where it all once begun

The journey to the journey is starting now

The empty box gives promises of how

So let us start with thread and hook and feathers

With gold and silver and fur cut from leather

Let’s make this emptiness whole again

The band of brothers we will retain

Emerger, spent spinner, soft hackle and dry

A dream of that special fish with every fly I tie

Floating caddis pupa

2011-05-25T12:39:00.000+02:00

I've always loved wool as a material for my dry flies and I feel it is a vastly unused material these days when everyone seem to turn to either CDC or foam when they experiment with floating flies. When used correctly regular wool can create fantastic effects and be almost unsinkable.

I experimented with the combination of wool and CDC in these caddis pupas, the wool is twisted hard to create a "rope" that is winded as a segmented body, after that I will go with a dubbing loop of CDC fibers between the segments. I will then cut down the CDC and pick out the wool a little bit to create a very fuzzy abdomen. A CDC hackle and a turn or two of partiride at the front makes it look even better! Now it looks like I migh get a chance to test these soon since I have some trout fishing planned in a couple of weeks now!

Hook: Partridge K14ST size 10
Thread: Sheer 14/0
Abdomen: Wool "rope" and CDC
Thorax: CDC and partridge

This is what I like

2011-05-22T19:46:00.000+02:00

You know, sometimes it feels like when you've seen one fly fishing movie you 've seen them all. And one thing that I never feel comfortable with is the fact that no one seem to get overwhelmingly happy when they catch fish that for most of us we can only dream on, have you noticed that too? I mean, someone goes to a dream location and catches a dream trout but the look and act like they are having their afternoon tea... it's gotta be that brittish heritage that still seem to flow trough fly fishing ;)

So I was really, really glad when I saw this clip from the rascals at Frontsidefly,com, they act (it seems) kinda like me and my buddys would on a fishing trip, with loads of humour and alot of spontaneous screams and true joy when they catch a magnificient fish! I LIKE!!!!

Be sure to check out all their videos at www,frontsidefly.com

Scandinavian Fly Fishing - Frontsidefly.com from Rolf Nylinder on Vimeo.

A CDC version

2011-05-20T14:28:00.000+02:00

The same fly but with CDC wing and "hackle". Looks fishy doesn't it? :)

So preparation starts now!

2011-05-19T22:31:00.001+02:00

A new adaptation of the "Killer" mayfly style of fly. This time to imitate the fantastic Baetis mayfly!

Hook: Partridge 15BNX size 20
Thread: Sheer 14/0
Tails: Plastic tails from a paint brush
Body: Thread over the tails and then two thin layers of bug bond to create the translucent effect
Hackle: Dun rooster winded under the body.
Wings: TMC Aero wing

No BFFI, summer fishing booked and more fishing

2011-05-19T22:04:00.000+02:00

So it's been one of those periods when I haven't been able to update here a lot... or at all... work is really hard for the moment but fortunately I see the light at the end of the tunnel because I have only four weeks left to work before I step into my 8 week long summer vacation! Life is good! :D

One thing that is far from good though is the fact that I have just cancelled my trip to the Brittish Fly fair for the second year in a row. As you might remember last year I had to cancel just one week before the show due to my fiancées serious ankle injury which was extremely hard on me because I'd had a long and tough period without any fishing and a very turbulent time at work and I had been looking forward then to it so much. Don't get me wrong, I had been looking forward to the show this time too, but the situation is a little different here for me and I feel that I have so many other things too in the near future to look forward to that makes it easier to cancel this time.

This time is is no injury behind it, it's just the classic matter of not being able to afford it. When my fiancée broke her ankle we had to wait a few months before getting any compensation from the general health insurance for it, and when it finally arrived it was already a massive debt being built up after a christmas period and both kids birthday so to be honest we still trying to catch up but we are almost there. There are other things as well, payment for articles that I have written that I have yet to receive, money that I had intended to finance the trip with, and when this money didn't come I have been looking to solve it in other ways but I really can't do it this time.

What I can look forward to now on the other hand is my first real mountain trip in three years this summer! We are now booked for one weeks fishing far, far, far up north in a river where we have never been. Holding a good population of BIG trouts. So I will not turn my attention to start planning for this instead, and I am just thrilled to have a couple of months to actually only tie flies for my own box for a trip!

So friends and foes beware, I am getting back to the vise for real now! :)

Fishing again last sunday

2011-05-03T11:36:00.000+02:00

Was out again on sunday fishing for the fourth week in a row, felt good to be able to come out more often this year then the previous two. It was clear that the early pike fishing season was still good, we caught a handful of pike and was in contact with several more. Will try and post some photos later tonight.

Linked tying; the Juanna be

2011-04-30T21:43:00.000+02:00

Juan Ramirez is the name of a very tallented fly tyer and fly fishing guide from Colorado springs in the US. He has a hopper pattern called the Hopper Juan, I however love his small version of it, the Juanna be Hopper Juan and will be tying up a few of these for this summers fishing, great stuff!

Tying the Juanna Be Hopper Juan from Juan Ramirez on Vimeo.

More pike flies

2011-04-27T13:40:00.000+02:00

I spent an evening last week tying some new tube pike flies, inspired by Niclaus Bauers style of flaring out material with the help of a foundation of bucktail.

"Greenig" - EP fibers, buctail, sadle hackles, racoon zonker and Siman Big fly brush.

"Pinky" - Bucktail, crystal flash, Whitning Bird fur and pink wool

"Squiddy" - long dry fly hackles, dubbing looped brown racoon zonker and a brown Siman big fly brush. I really, really like this one myself! :D

Report from the pike weekend

2011-04-24T07:25:00.000+02:00

So I finally got time to sit down and write up a little report from the last weekend. This has been a weird week indeed...

Me and my friends from Elmerfishing.com has been away to my homes waters for almost every year since 2002 during spring and have had some great trips and some not so great at least when it comes to the fishing, the trips themselves are always great just for the friendship and all the laughs! The past two years have seen a real increase in the amount of pike caught, especially for the smaller sized ones.

Last year we caught about 35 pikes over three and a half day and that was the best we've had for years, but most were in the 2 kilo range. It is great to see that the spawning has worked after a few years when it was almost impossible to catch a pike under 3 kg. So with that in mind I have had bigger expectations on this season than i have had for a few years and my first real outing when I caught four pike during only one and a half hours fishing raised it all slightly more.

This year I started the whole thing on Thursday when I went out with my oldest son Kristoffer, the rest of the gang bound to arrive on Friday. So we set out with one big goal for the day; to get Kristoffer to catch his first pike ever! We started out on the spot where I had the absolute best fishing last season, about 75% of all pike from last spring we caught there. So it was a little surprising to find that we had absolutely no contact with fish at all.

It was only about 3 degrees Celsius in the water and the ice had only been away for less than two weeks, so by all standards we were very early in the season still, but I've had such good fishing the previous Friday so I still had faith we'd catch fish at the next spot. We made our way to the island where I had had such good fishing the week before and set up again. I put my own rod to the side first, focused on helping Kristoffer with his spinning rod for instructions and pep talk. His first cast he had a follower directly, I almost didn't see it so I didn't have time to react and instruct him to stop. Quickly cast out again with the small spinning rod and the little lure and this time I had full focus, and the same follower again. He followed my instructions clearly, stopped when I told him to, a couple of quick winds and the pike exploded on the little lure! He got to feel how the pike struggled trough his rod and then I helped him wind it in and land it!

Around two kilos and in perfect conditions! A happy boy with an even more happy father taking the photos! I showed him how to release it properly and then it swam off again. It wasn't until afterwards that I really realized how fantastic this was, and how it affected me. Here I was fishing the same area where my father had taken me along some 30 years earlier, and here I was instructing my son how to cast, reel and catch fish just like my father had done to me, and here I was watching my son catch his first pike a few hundred meters from where I caught my first pike 29 years earlier. It can't be described with words... it's full circle...

Now we could both fish very relaxed and fish like we had no worries in the world, which was exactly how it was for those hours were were there. I caught three more that day, two at the same place where Kristoffer caught his and one more at another end of the same island. We had a pike first attach my fly and then when I missed on setting the hook it went and attacked Kristoffers lure instead but he didn't set it either, but it was a cool sequence! Still a lot of hot spots were completely dead but four pikes caught was a good record for being so early in the season.

So the next morning I was supposed to meet my friend Roger at half past eight at the boat and while he was getting most of his stuff from the car to the boat I did a cast among the boats just to test my fly in the water. I was a little surprised to see a pike come up and attack my fly at the first cast! A bad setting of the hook made it come off after just a couple of seconds but I got a good feeling from that!

We went out to the island where we have our base camp and let Roger set up his stuff before going out to the spot where Kristoffer and I had such good fishing and be both had followers directly, I had one pike follow my fly five casts in a row and then after changing my fly it took it but I didn't manage to set that one either. Just after that Roger had a massive strike but he didn't manage to hook his either. So a lot of contact with pikes when it was time to go in and get Anders who had just arrived. The fishing was similar after we continued to fish with Anders, a few followers and missed strikes. Anders had an extremely aggressive pike hit his fly fully visible to us five times but I don't know what he was doing because he kinda didn't strike back on any of those takes! Sleepwalker! :D

During the afternoon the fishing died out and we had very little contact now with fish, and when the evening came so did Magnus completing the four of us from Elmer on this trip. A very nice evening with a few beers, open fire and camp life followed and we all slept good in our tents that night.

Next morning it was time to go get our guests for the weekend; March Fauvet and Jeanette Linnarud who had come down from Västerås to fish with us! It was so very nice to meet them both again and to finally get to go fishing together.

The day started out just as the day before, I had followers and missed a clear take just underneath my feet where I was standing on a high rock. It was kinda getting a little frustrated now that I had missed out on so many takes. Still most actions were at the exact same spot, where Kristoffer had caught his pike two days earlier and it was hard get get in contact with fish at any other spot.

March and Jeanette stayed at the island where we were camping after lunch while the rest of us decided to go back to the island where all the actions had been to fish another small bay there. As were were crossing over Anders noticed that it looked like March had fish on, by the looks of it from a spot where I hadn't fished for years. That's one of the things I love with bringing new people around, they seem to fish places that you have forgotten or ignored for years.

Photo by Marc Fauvet

After having fished again without any luck we went back to question March about his catch and he told us he had caught a nice 80cm pike on the shallow spots just at the entrance to the lagoon where our base camp was. He also told us that he had just seen a pike that he estimated to "a bit over 100cm" slowly swimming by him just a few meters from shore as he had switched to fishing for sea trout. Now that was exciting to hear!

Roger had to leave us after lunch and the rest of the day was very slow, a few contacts only but most spots were totally dead. It was clear that it was too early still in the season to get some really good action. But the weather was fantastic and the company equally good so we still were enjoying ourselves immensely. But it was frustrating that I have had so many strikes without hooking any, but we still had one more day left.

The next morning started in the best imaginable way, with Marc catching another pike. Since he and Jeanette was camping in shore we had to go get them in the morning, and when we were coming close to them we could see that Marc had a pike on at the little pier where our boat normally is.As we let the boat glide in close Anders who was standing in the fore saw 3-4 more pike on the bottom in the shallow water, this was a place we needed to fish! So we helped Marc unhook his pike and then just put the boat at the cliffs on the opposite from the pier, so that we could cast towards it over the spots where we saw the pikes. I missed one strike directly but the cast after I hooked it! Felt good to finally land something after having missed out on so many strikes!

Photo by Marc Fauvet

So this final day things turned out to be the best yet, I caught another and Anders also caught a nice pike in perfect conditions at about 4 kilo. Making the Sunday total four pikes, still by all standards a slow day but it felt good to have some more actions and we left the island quite happy anyway.

Another trip comes to an end and myself I was feeling happy and blessed after having been outside in such an evironment for four days together with such fantastic friends.

Here's some more photos from the weekend:

Me, Marc and Anders. Photo by Marc Fauvet

Jeanettes photos

2011-04-18T20:05:00.000+02:00

For my report from this past weekends fishing I like to continue with this wonderful photo slideshow from Jeanette Linnarud who came along with Marc Fauvet to fish with us for two days. More photos and reports to come later!

A day to remember

2011-04-18T19:50:00.000+02:00

Thursday 14th 2011 - the day my son caught his first pike ♥♥♥♥

I am not sure how to put words on something like this, but it feels like I have come full circle now. We were in the same water where I caught my first pike 1982 together with my father, and now I know that I have planted the same seed that I got back then. It is a rare gift to have found something that you can love for you entire life, and I can only hope that Kristoffer will keep wanting to get out with me on fishing trips for as long as I live.

Om jag hade fått önska en enda sak så hade det varit att du hade varit med oss den här dagen Pappa

Pike tube flies

2011-04-12T10:33:00.000+02:00

Finally got to tying tube flies the other day. There has been so much hype around pike flies on tube the last year or so but I have not really gotten around to try it. I did have alot of tube materials that I got from a friend a year ago but I didn't have a proper vise or tube needle, but I managed to make something simillar to use and tied me up a few tube flies last week. The green and black one at the bottom was the fly I caught all pikes with on friday.

Now only two days left to the fishing trip!

Fishing 110411

2011-04-11T13:13:00.000+02:00

So finally a real premier, no ice, no snow and biting fish! Okay, it only lasted one and a half hours but the amount of action during that short time was more than I could have hoped for! Four pikes caught, and about 4-5 more that I was in contact with. A couple of the once caught also struck several casts in a row before I manged to hook them. So almost constant action during the time I was fishing! The biggest was 80 cm, a nice fat pre-spawn madame! All caught on a new tube fly, green and black on a copper tube.

Starting thursday we are out for our four day pike madness, boy am I looking forward to that now!

Linked tying: Sheep's head pike fly

2011-04-08T10:12:00.001+02:00

If you are a pike fly fisherman in Scandinavia you most certainly know who Niklaus Bauer is. Co owner of Fly dressing and one of the top guys when it comes to fly fishing for pike and tying inovative pike flies. He might not be as known outside the nordics mainly because he don't publish that much on the internet and as far as I know has not been around tying at shows that much in other countries.

However, below is a video (in Swedish) of Niklasy tying a awsome pike fly with a head from sheeps fleece. Hope you enjoy!

More pike flies

2011-04-05T22:21:00.000+02:00

Traveling around at shows for me is a way to meet people and I always learn something from everyone I meet. Last year I got the opportunity to meet Steve Silvero at the Fly fair in Holland, which was great for me because Steve is one of my real "heroes" when it comes to pike flies and salt water flies.

One clever little thing that I got from him was to use the plastic inside of the caps of juice cartoons as a form of "magic head" on pike flies, making them push much more water and move irregularly trough the water. So tonight I did a massive racoon zonker with one of these heads, looks deadly!

Obviously also inspired by the work of another of my pike fly heroes; Simon Graham!

Fishing booked!

2011-04-05T19:25:00.001+02:00

It was a last minute call but it seems we have now finally booked our yearly "Elmer goes pike" trip to my home waters, and it's already next week! Thursday to Sunday we will be out casting fluff to the toothy critters!

Here's a Schlappen deluxe I tied up last night for this occassion!

A fishing premier with too much ice!

2011-04-02T19:26:00.000+02:00

For those who know me by now you know that my season starts off with pike and sea trout fishing along the coast where I live. This past Sunday I finally got out on this years premier fishing with my friend Magnus "Surpuppan". Just like last year the season has seen a major delay from the long and hard winter we've had. Normally most of my spots never gets frozen over but the past two winters they have been completely iced up preventing me from fishing in March where I normally start.

And just like last years premier this year saw us come out a couple of weeks too early. We noticed directly when we finished our walk trough the forest with our float tubes on the backs that our normal starting spot was still iced over. We managed to get out with the tubes over to an island on just outside the lagoon to fish in the middle of the hard southwestern winds, Magnus aiming for sea trout and I for pike. There were hope though because we could see that on the other side of the water way one of our top spots for pike were ice free. Unfortunately I later lost one of the fins to the float tube so we couldn't reach it. We fished a couple of more spots that were outside the inner lagoons and bays but it was evident that we were a bit early for the pikes.

Later that day our friend Martin came with his fiancee and son as well as their two dogs. We had a great day casting away the worst of the built up need for fishing, but I did miss those heavy jerks at the end of the line that only a pike can give you! We did see sea eagles at several occasions during the day, extremely cool to get a look at those massive birds up close, maybe next time I will be ready with the camera more!

But at least now we have started the season!!!!

Baptising of the "still got the blues for you" baitfish patter

2011-03-24T23:05:00.000+01:00

Yeah, isn't that a cool name?! :D
You would recognize it by now, the little blue fish skull baitfish I did a while back. Now finally this sunday I will get to test it myself. I sold about 20 of these at the Swedish fly fair two weeks ago so it has probably already been tested but this will be the first for me! I will give a couple to "Surpuppan" because he will most certainly be after the sea trout more than me.

Man I can't wait to get out there!!!!!

The SGTBFY baitfish:

Fishing premier this sunday!

2011-03-24T15:28:00.000+01:00

Yes!!!! Five bloody months since I last wet a line, a terrible streak that was kept long because of broken legs and a way too long winter but now it is finally time!

I will be joined by my friend "Surpuppan" and maybe a couple of more, I'll most certainly go for pike and Surpuppan will go for sea trout at least until I start hauling pike after pike in front of him :)

Here' a new pike fly I did a couple of days ago. Green and white with mostly white has been so productive in the spring season so this should work like a charm! This is a simple raccoon zonker fly with a little schlappen flatwing, some white marabou and buck tail and finished off with some tip dyed chartreuse marabou.

Books

2011-03-20T18:51:00.000+01:00

I did some rearranging in my fly tying room today to make room for some of my fishing books I got from my father a few years back. Digging deep in the boxes of books I discovered books I wasn't even aware that I had. Like this fantastic 30 year old book with sketches from Alaska from legendary Swedish fly fishing author Rolf Smedman. I know what I am gonna read tonight!

Tying demo last tuesday

2011-03-19T18:55:00.000+01:00

I was up in Uppsala on tuesday evening doing a little tying demo for a club there where my good friend Niklas Dahlin is a member. It was a great evening, loads of open minded people who all had quick to laughter and was very curious.

It is fantastic really, I spent a week before the show tying up flies, then four days tying flies at the show itself, then a whole evening at this demo and now I still have an urge to go tie flies. Probably means I have some kind of mental illness but at least I am enjoying myself ! :D

Cheers all, spread the love!

Swedish fly fishing fair 2011 - report

2011-03-17T22:47:00.000+01:00

So once again the Swedish fly fishing show was held in Stockholm together with the Wilderness fair and just beside the BIG boat fair. For anyone who has not been to the venue in Älvsjö you need to know that it is a HUGE place with great big halls, and it takes a lot of spectators over the four days the fly fishing show is held.

This year was just as much fun for me as always, it has turned out as a gathering of the big fly fishing family for me and I so enjoyed myself meeting so many friends, friendly people and sharing so much laughter with them.

As always the fly tyers row held world class in both domestic and international tyers. Also the speaks and tying at the theather was high class with a lot of spectators for all of them.

Here's a few photos from the weekend a mix of friends and fantastic flies:

Marc Fauvet and Simon Graham, two great friends!

Johan Klingberg

Anders Ståhl who ties fantastic classic salmon flies

My good friend Chris Reeves

Sometimes you get to meet a legend... Mr A.K. Best. What stories he had!

Igor Stancev, fantastic fly tyer and great guy!

Fantastic tube fly baitfish from Micke "Bluedun" Gröhndal.

It was great having Roy Christie back!

One of Simon Grahams great pike flies!

Tube fly from Nestor Dupo, great stuff!

Show's over

2011-03-14T14:00:00.000+01:00

So this years Swedish Fly fishing show is now over. Four days of mayhem and fun with a lot of laughter and a lot of meetings with great people. After a last minute cancelation it was a pleassure that we could get my friend Chris Reeves to come to us instead, a great fly tyer and a really good show man.

Here's little glimpse (sorry only Swedish) of what went one, full report later:

http://www.fiskenyheter.se/nyheter.php?id=1918

TV show: what a surreal experiation!

2011-03-10T21:50:00.000+01:00

So I was on national television this morning as a thing to push for the Swedish fly show starting today. It was a totally surreal experience, very weird feeling to step into that world that you have never been in before. But first and foremost it was just pure fun!!!

So after having been in the studio for four hours and appearing in short sections on and off I was done and rushed out to the show in time to set my stuff up before the show opened.

Here is links to a couple of clips where I am in from this morning:

http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter_och_debatt/nyhetsmorgon?title=sa_binder_du_dina_egna_flugor_till_flugfiske&videoid=1314701&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se

http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter_och_debatt/nyhetsmorgon?title=jenny_och_steffo_far_lara_sig_att_binda_flugor&videoid=1314974&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=permalink&utm_campaign=tv4play.se

TV participation in the morning

2011-03-09T22:14:00.000+01:00

Got a phone call today asking if I wanted to be on national television tomorrow morning tying flies and talking about fly tying, glad I didn't have time to think about it and I said yes. After that it is full speed down to the Swedish fly show for four days mayhem!

Let's see if I can fix some clips from my TV embarrassment afterwards, I will surely put them up here if I get hold of some.

Tyers list for the comming show

2011-03-08T23:57:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd share the list of tyers for the show starting Thursday. Normaly there will be a cancelation or two before the show but this year has been worse than ever, I think the organizers still did a great job getting a very nice set of both domestic and international tyers this year again:

A.K. Best
Mick Hall
Ole Kristian Skaar
Henrik Juhl Petersen
Igor Stancev
Chris Reeves
Roy Christie
Simon Graham
Anders Ståhl
Desiré Orre
Leif Ehnström,
Johan Klingberg
Peter Scheffler
Niclas Runarsson
Nestor Dupo
Ibrahim Mesinovic
Ulf Hagström

More preparations

2011-03-08T23:44:00.000+01:00

Last batches of flies before the Swedish fly fair, tomorrow is packing night and then on Thursday it kicks off at 12... or was it 10... doesn't really matter I'll probably be there from 8 or something anyway! :)

Wiggle fishes

Mixed small batch of weaved caddis larva, Baetis nymf, Danica duns, Caddis pupa and ants:

Finished it all off with a little cleptparasite pike fly!

Preparing...

2011-03-06T23:19:00.000+01:00

Only three days left before the first real show of the season, the Swedish fly fishing fair! I don't take many fly orders these days, most flies I do sell are on shows, a way for me to be able to buy something nice for myself at the end of the show. So this year I was planning on getting a new wading jacket, so I've been tying up a few batches of flies that I will sell there. Unfortunately I seem to have caught some kind of stomach bug and have been feeling like crap today, hoping to feel better tomorrow so that I can put in some more flies.

I am so looking forward to the show, first and foremost I love meeting friends and also meeting the big crowd of people being able to share some flies and tying with everyone.

Here's some batches of flies that I've tied these past days:

Not yet named new batitfish:

SRM emergers

Small foam mayflies:

They're heeeeereee!!!

2011-02-19T19:25:00.000+01:00

The first batch for our newly founded Ale and Stout society! It's.... just....so...beautiful! :D

Todays tying 110214

2011-02-15T06:35:00.000+01:00

Last night I tied up a handful of my SRM emerger, these particular ones are for next months big show here in Sweden but these will also of course be in my box for this summers fishing. Heptagenias and Ephemerella Auvrilli are perfect mayfly nymphs to imitate with this emerger. Now if only I had a trout to cast it too right at this moment!

Todays tying 110212

2011-02-12T19:18:00.000+01:00

I have really taken too many projects to myself over the past couple of years, articles, shows, demos, tying for orders etc. has really put my own boxes to shame and left them empty and dusty. This year I am finally getting back to some regular summer fishing so I really look forward to actually tie for my own box for a few months this spring instead of tying 20 flies the days before a trip and then spending every night at the trip tying in my tent for the next day. I have a few "must do" before I put all other things to the side, mainly two articles for a new fly fishing magazine (more about that later) and some flies to tie up for the Swedish fly fishing show next month, but come April and I will tie only for my own box!

One fly that I am gonna be sure to put in rows is the small foam mayfly I do, a.k.a the SRM dun. This one works particularly good when the dark Stoneclingers are hatching; Heptagenia Fuscogrisea or "Brun forsslända" as it is named in Swedish. So here's an example on how it's gonna look in my box in a month or so!

Top view, notice how the hackle is flared out, the fly floats deep in the film which for some reason works great when these mayflies are hatching.

Product review: Vision Big Mama pike line

2011-02-08T14:48:00.000+01:00

If you know me the slightest you will know that I am very fond of fly fishing for pike. Living as I do just by the baltic sea with some of the nicest pike fishing areas of the south Stockholm archipelago just around the corner it is so easy to get hold of pike to cast at. Also way before I started fly fishing I was fishing for pike with a spinning rod together with my father and my brother and those days will always be very dear to me so pike fishing will also stay close to my heart forever.

Now, for many years I have had problems finding a good regular manufacctured line for pike fly fishing, it has always been easier to manufactur your own from shooting heads and running lines but that's not always the easiest thing to do either. So I have struggled with over classed lines and short heads for years but then a couple of years ago I got hold of the new Vision "Big mama" line, one of several likes to come over the past couple of years that is manufactured specially for fly fishing for pike.

At the same time as I got the line I also upgraded to a nine weight from my previous eight weight, so not only did I now have a rod to handle bigger flies I also had what I hoped for a line to handle BIG flies aswell as handling the very hard winds that can sometime hit me at my home waters. And the first couple of times out there I knew that this was a vast improvement from anything I had previously tried, and now two years later I can only say that I am convinced that this must be considered as one of the top lines for pike fly fishing.

I have only tried the floating version, it also comes in a sink 2 head with an intermidiate running line and a sink 4 head with a sink 3 running line. All three are 33 meters long in total and a muscular head of only 12,8 m. The head is built up from a short front taper, a thick head and a long back taper and that long back taper really enables you to force your casts trough despite hard winds and huge flies.

A nine weight really would be my recomendation, not only for the big flies but also if you are a coastal fisherman like me you will be able to cope with the wind in a much better way.

So is it really 100% good with no flaws? No of course not, nothing is 100% good except Ale from Great divide, but it is a really good line! What I can say is that my line only lasted me two and a half season, for some that is long and for others it is a short time. But since I fish in bracish water the saltyness of the water will of course tear on the line more than if I had fished only fresh water. Also sometimes when fishing really big flies I had problems getting them to turn completely and stretching out, now this can easily be because of my unorthodox casting technique and I know it is not at all important to actually present the flies carefully with a stretched leader but still....

I have just gotten hold of the Guideline Pike line, which is simillar to the Vision Big Mama, and I am very thrilled to compare the two, so a report on that will follow this spring after I have tested that one trough.

Verdict

Vision Big Mama is a great line for anyone doing pike fly fishing, it will handle big flies and cope with wind with ease letting you really punch away your flies at great distance. The only set back for me was that I would have wanted it to last maybe a season longer and that the price is rather hight, but all in all I can definitly recomend it. I give it four Blasphemy hoppers out of five!

Linked tying: Cravens Mugly caddis

2011-02-07T20:36:00.000+01:00

I had not much of a summer season last year, mainly because my fiancee got a summer job and we really needed the money so as she worked the whole summer I was home with the kids. I did however get the chance to go away for three days up north for some nice fishing during some fantastic days. One of the flies that I tied up for that trip was this fly; Cravens Mugly Caddis.

Charlie Craven doesn't really need an introduction, running one of the best webpages for fly tying as well as a well visited fly shops in Colorado he is one of the top names in fly tying today. I hope that I will one day be able to watch him tie or even visit his shop. This pattern of his is a almost perfect caddis imitation, eventhough I have so far tied and fished a darker version of it, the buggy look from the SLF together with the attributes of CDC and elk makes it an instant favourite and one I will be filling rows of my boxes with for this summers fishing!

More to give you that itch

2011-01-31T06:59:00.002+01:00

I think this Norwegiean produced DVD is something that I need to get myself, I especially like the underwater shooting!

Time to start filling up!

2011-01-30T09:57:00.000+01:00

Now it is about time to start filling up those boxes for the coming trout/grayling season. What better to fill than my new Bug Luggage boxes!

I think I need to go to Alberta!

2011-01-29T19:14:00.004+01:00

Dry fly fish porn on the highest level!!! Sit back and get that itch!

Todays tying 110123

2011-01-23T23:36:00.001+01:00

So I went at that little blue baitfish again today. I had an idea that a double tail would make it move better and more important not propeller around when retrieved. Since using two quills tied together was still a little stiff and very time consuming I went for something else. I used the tip of the bug bonded mallard feathers and tied these onto a piece of 0.40 mm mono and tied that in onto the hook. The result was really good! It moved better in the bath tub test (!) and looked much better!

Hook: Partridage K12ST
Thread: Sheer 14/0
Tail: Two cut and varnished (Bug bond) tips from mallard feather tied onto a piece of mono
Underbody: Blue angel hair
Body: Racoon hair cut from zonker strip
Head: Blue small/medium fish skull

Ale Adventures

2011-01-21T07:11:00.000+01:00

Me and a friend from work Jörgen have been talking for quite some time about starting a beer club and order larger amounts of beer from what is know as the "order range" from the Swedish Systembolaget. This is a large range of beverage that are not in the shops but can be ordered in packages of 12 or 24. Now we have finally gotten around to founding it, and together with 6 other friends we have founded "Hop Devils' Ale Adventures"!

Focus is ale and stout but I think there might be a few belgian style beers comming along there aswell. It's gonna be great to pursuit this great interest of mine this way. So about once a month we are ordering about 4-5 new ales, stouts, IPA's, imperial stouts, brown ales, double IPA's, barely wines etc. to try.

Here's our first order:
Victory hop devil IPA
Double dog pale ale
Bateman dark lord
Strong Suffolk vintage ale

Product review: Sixth finger scissors

2011-01-18T21:34:00.001+01:00

All I do every post is showing flies, with the occasional fishing report and show report, so I thought I'd throw in a product review now and then. The way I see it I do tie a whole lot of flies over the course of a year so I think I am pretty good at wearing down tools, materials and other stuff around fly tying and also pretty good at determining if a product is good or not. And of course I would gladly accept any freebies to test! ;)

First out is a tool that I've come to really enjoy having with me at the tying desk since I got hold of it in September last year; The sixth finger scissors!

Made by Singlebarbed in the USA it shows that often it is the small, easily looked upon as insignificant, details that makes the difference between what is just good and what is pure brilliant. Yeah, as you guessed it already I am in love with these scissors. It comes in three different flavors, a 4,5" stainless steel variant, a 4,5" with tungsten edges and a larger 5,5" also with tungsten edges. Of course the tungsten versions are made to last longer and is also branded "Professional". What is common between all three version of the scissors is that they are designed so that you never have to put them down, ever! But I would recommend you to only follow that when you are tying flies, going to bed with it still in you hand can get nasty (and no, not the good nasty).

One over-sized finger hole allows the scissor to be worn like a wedding ring – at the base of the finger and keeps the points away from your fly when you don't need it and will easily allow for the tying thread bobbin to fit in your hand also.

Simply just flick your wrist to the right (if you are a right hander that is) to get the scissors to fall into your hand when tying, and then flip it the other way to let if fall forward and cut with it. Dead easy, pure brilliance and probably would be able to cure cancer and solve world peace also if you let it!

Of course one of the biggest issues with scissors is how long they will stay sharp, and that would be the only thing that I haven't tested yet. I tried to build a time machine last weekend to take me two years forward in time to see if the scissors were still sharp but I didn't really get it to work. The only thing I can say is that over these past +three months I have been using the Tungsten version it has not gotten any duller, I still think it is exactly as sharp as when I started using it (which is very sharp!).

So the verdict is predictable. I would give the Sixth finger scissors four and a half Blasphemy hoppers out of five, the only thing that prevents it from getting five is that I don't know how it will stand the test of time. If I get the time machine to work this weekend I will get back and update this... and I will also get back and report if Liverpool wins the Premier League under Kenny Dalglish next year or not!

Verdict:

Some great t-shirt prints

2011-01-17T07:22:00.000+01:00

Via Simon over at http://pikeflyfishingarticles.blogspot.com/ I found this webbshop selling some very amusing redneck style t-shirt prints. I need to order me a few of these below, would be great for my "t-shirt and jacket" outfit :) Check out all of them at http://www.dixieshirts.net

Test run, thougts and more experimenting

2011-01-16T22:42:00.000+01:00

Did a test run in the bath tub (!) of that small baitfish with the mallard hair and the racoon hair definitly move nicely, the tail doesn't. But the slight curve to it make it swim sideways a little bit, looks kinda like a hurt little fish that way. Now all that is just good in my book, but I notices that sometimes the fly would just propeller around a turn when retriving it, that is not good. I think I need to try some with the tail curve upwards instead, should make it go better. I theory that should make the fly drop its tail when retrieved. Man I wish I had one of those small streaming fly testing machine that my finish friend Mikko Stenberg has!

Or... tie the tail detached wiggle style! I need to experiment more!

Original wiggle

2011-01-16T21:36:00.000+01:00

Here's the original wiggle craft fur baitfish. I finally managed to place the vise inside the lightbox and take a good photo there. The sharpen filter in photoshop actually worked quite nice this time.

F/16, 1 sec, ISO100, +0,7 EV, 55 mm

For my fellow Swedish coastal fishermen

2011-01-14T11:02:00.000+01:00

Läs, begrunda och sprid gärna!

http://www.newsmill.se/node/31688

CDC loop emerger - link

2011-01-13T11:52:00.000+01:00

One of my friends in the UK, Dave Wiltshire, runs a great site that holds many really good step-by-step descriptions. We were fortunate to have Dave over here at the Swedish fly fishing show last year and he is one of the funniest guys you can meet with and a great flytyer. I was very sad to have missed meeting him again in November when I had to cancel my trip to the Brittish fly fair.

Many people tie CDC loop emerger, what Dave's done is adding his own touch to this great pattern. Be sure to fill your fly box with these!

http://www.riverflybox.co.uk/page6cdcloopemerger.html

Todays tying 110112

2011-01-13T09:20:00.000+01:00

Did a similar pattern like that one with the mallard feather that I posted a few days ago today but smaller and threw in some blue angel hair between the two colors of racoon hairs. I think it turned out great! The question is how does it fish? Will the slight curve to the tail make the fly propeller round when retrived? I need to test it soon to se.

Hook: Partridage K12ST
Thread: Sheer 14/0
Tail: Cut and varnished (Bug bond) tip from mallard feather
Underbody: Blue angel hair
Body: Racoon hair cut from zonker strip
Head: Blue small/medium fish skull

Here's how it looks when dry:

And here's how it looks when wet, nice fry isn't it?

And another

2011-01-12T06:58:00.000+01:00

F/20, 1,6 sek, ISO-100, +0,3 EV at 55mm. Levels and contrast adjusted and a Sharpen filter added in Photoshop.

More lightbox photos

2011-01-12T06:49:00.000+01:00

"Yes R2 I am sure Obiwan said; "use the HORSE Luke", what else can he have said? Now stop this and let's go find master Luke"

Todays tying 110110

2011-01-10T23:50:00.000+01:00

No one noticed that I didn't tie anything yesteday did they? No, that's what I thougt! :)

Today I took an old and successful pattern of mine call the mini-streamer and did a little improvement to it. You remember that purple and silver streamer made from that "fur yarn" I posted a couple of weeks ago right? What I sometimes used to fish with was a small size 10 "streamer" with a piece of that yarn as a matuka style wing over a silver body with a couple of small dumbbell eyes on it. Today I did something similar but I used a Heavy metal nymf head from Flymen company and winded the yarn backwards over the hook, tied it down and ribbed it forward to do a few segments and then covered the whole body with Bug bond! Looks yummy!

Hook: Not sure.. but it is a size 10! :)
Thread: Sheer 14/0
Body and tail: "Disco yarn"
Body coating: Bug bond
Head: HM Nymf head

Making a light box

2011-01-10T19:38:00.000+01:00

I stumbled upon a few tutorials on the internet on how to make a cheap light box for still photographing which I tried out last nigh. I've been messing a little with similar stuff a couple of years ago but that was when I had only a point and click pocket camera so I thought I'd give it a chance. Simply enough it is just three regular white printer paper and one dark thicker paper stapled together to a "box" with a oval whole cut out in the dark paper. Also there is another dark paper with a flap that can be hung over the inside over the backside of the "box" to get rid of any unwanted reflections.

Heres the tutorial (in french) wich shows you better what I have been trying to describe above. If you're like me you suck at french and will use the google translator to understand it :)

Tutorial

Here's a couple of fly photos, one with white background and one with blue background that shows you a nice result of it.

As you can see it works great on other objects too! :)

It can really stand a good zoom too!

Introducing Grayling Dreams

2011-01-09T23:51:00.000+01:00

So I promised to tell you a little bit on this project of mine I have been working on for almost eight months now. For three years I have been thinking and planning on starting some kind of business on my own, with a dream to be my own boss, work with my passion for fly fishing and by working mostly from home be able to be more with my kids. An utopia maybe but a man is nothing without his dreams!

Eight months ago I started planning for the start of Grayling Dreams, my company who is a reality from November 2010. Mainly this is a distributor/wholesale business where I am about to import a number of products in fly fishing or fly tying and distribute onwards to Swedish shops. I am hoping to use my broad contact net both at manufacturers abroad and shops in Sweden as well as my skills as a product developer from my regular work to reach success. I have drawn a three year plan for myself during which I hope to build such a big business so that I can one day quit my day job and only work with this.

My focus has been to approach manufacturers that have something very unique over their product/products. So far I am very pleased with the products I have gathered into Grayling Dreams, they all have something very special over them and have not been seen here in any shops up until now. Sixth finger scissors, 720 vise, Fish skull etc. from Flymen Company, crystal eyes and more from Deer Creek, bug luggage fly boxes, Rite bobbins are just some of the stuff that I am VERY proud to be representing here now.

For now I have about 5-6 shops that I am talking too, so far the journey has been fantastic, but the great thing is that it has just started! The (almost finished) website of the business is unfortunately only in Swedish but will give you a good overlook on what kind of products we will be distributing. http://graylingdreams.com/

Wish me luck!

Todays tying 110109

2011-01-09T01:00:00.000+01:00

Okay, it is one of my wiggle baitfish. I mixed some angel hair in the craft fur. And I used a Fish skull again. Now I desperatly need some sleep. Peace.

Yeah I know, not the best hook used. I was all out of the K12ST. Who cares anyway?

Muddler perch tying - link

2011-01-08T19:10:00.000+01:00

Seriously, us fly tyers today have it so much easier than anyone starting to tie flies for let's say twenty years ago. The welth of information, articles, patterns, detailed step-by-step descriptions etc. from some of the best tyers in the world is out there available only with a few clicks of the mouse. The internet is really at it's best when it comes to sharing information on mutual interests like fly fishing and fly tying.

I was fortunate to start tying flies about the same time as the internet really exploded in popularity, and I would never ever have gotten so far in my tying without all the people willing to share at forums and websites. Still today I find myself browsing around for inspiration and patterns, and the number of flytying books I have is rather small, I still turn to the internet for inspiration because that is something that is updated constantly! Of course there is an unbeatable feeling of having a book in your hands and no internet site can give you that feeling that a real good fly fishing / flytying book can give you.

So I thought I'd regularly share some links with you all, to patterns I like or to specific websites that I think has something a little extra.

First out is a pattern originally designed for salt water but it would in my book work just as fine for trouts or any other fresh water predatory fish. The"Mmuddled perch" as it is called combines classic muddler style deer head with a baitfish style tail, I like it a lot!

Unfortunatly I have not been able to see who actually tied the fly and wrote the article at flyfishersrepublic.com, so if anyone knows give me the info and I'll update with proper credit. Here is the link:

http://www.flyfishersrepublic.com/patterns/muddled-perch/